Woman's wish granted with appearance on game show

FLORENCE — A positive attitude, a little ingenuity and family tradition worked together to garner a Burlington County resident a spot on her favorite TV show.

“It was me, my daughter and I believe my mom was there in spirit,” said Florence resident Linda Richardson, while talking about her recent stint on one of America’s longest running game shows, Let’s Make a Deal.

The Burlington City substitute teacher was visiting her daughter in Los Angeles to celebrate her 65th birthday when she took a chance and tried out for the CBS morning show.

“I used to be my mother’s caregiver before she passed away, and even though she was on dialysis, we’d make sure we watched Let’s Make a Deal before we left for the treatment, “ said Richardson.

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“We would watch the show together every morning because it was so uplifting it keeps you energized all day, and I turned to my mother once and said ‘I’m going to be on that show one day mom.’ ”

Her mother passed away recently, and Richardson decided to make good on her promise to her mother. However, in order to ensure she would have her 15 minutes of fame, the senior citizen thought long and hard about what costume would seal the deal.

Let’s Make a Deal is the game show where audience members dress in outlandish costumes in order to be noticed and chosen to play for cash and prizes by making deals with the host, according to the show’s website. The one-hour series is hosted by Emmy Award-winner Wayne Brady at the Sunset Bronson Studios in Hollywood.

“Whenever I watch the show I noticed that Wayne Brady, (the host of the game show,) has a high regard for teachers,” she said.

The retired educator went old school, put her hair up in a bun, and put on a black and white outfit, with letters and numbers pinned all over it. “I decided to do reading, writing and arithmetic, I even held a book called the Book of Wayne.”

The handmade encyclopedia shared interesting facts about the word Wayne, including all the cities in the country named Wayne and the meaning of the word Wayne. It did the trick as Brady’s curiosity was piqued by Richardson’s ingenuity.

“I needed to increase my odds of getting chosen, and this costume and book did that, I was one of the first contestants to be picked,” she said. The show’s press release states one out of every eighteen audience members gets to be a contestant on the show

Richardson is not allowed to disclose the exact amount she won during the taping, which airs on CBS at 10 a.m. today. However she did say that winning an opportunity to be on a show she grew up watching and spent countless hours with her mother enjoying, outweighs any amount of money should could have won.

“Most things in life you take a chance. The lesson for me is, if you believe that something will happen, it can happen,” said Richardson. ‘It’s exciting, it makes you glad and we all benefit to see someone else win something.”